The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
